My Weekend Coverage August 15 (FNM) and August 16 (IQ)

My Friday Night Magic this past week at Learn 2 Play Games in Brandon, FL was a success. I easily drew in to top 8 after 3 rounds of Swiss. Being on the Mono Black train right now, my only weak match-up was the G/W one which I managed to stabilize both games with digging with Underworld Connections into Gray-Merchant of Asphodel.

My IQ story also at L2P Games was not as successful.  In the first round, I beat Maze’s End during Time and Round on Turn 5 with a Gray-Merchant for the win due to a slight misplay and him also missing his Kiora emblem trigger.

On the hill against G/W, my opponent had to mulligan down to 5 cards and I had 3 Thoughtseize, 2 Swamps, a Bile Blight, and a Pack Rat in my opening hand so I felt pretty good about the match.

He was on the play, so he went Turn 1 Experiment One.

My Turn 1, I Thoughtseize and strip away his Fleecemane Lion so he has no pressure to put on the field next turn. His next turn he follows with his second land but no spells, and passes turn.

During my next turn, I miss a land drop but I play Pack Rat, knowing that his hand currently consists of Loxodon Smiter, Ajani’s Presence, and Advent Wurm.  That’s fine.

His next turn, he draws, and plays Experiment One, and then attacks.

I draw, and once again I fail to hit a land. But I still have 2 Thoughtseize in hand. Here’s where I made a major misplay I believe:

I know he still has Ajani’s Presence, Loxodon Smiter, and Advent Wurm. There’s no reason for me Thoughtseize here. He’s still two lands away from Advent Wurm being a threat, so I should save the Thoughtseize to get more value out of my glance at his hand. But I Thoughtseize anyway stripping away the Advent Wurm. Now, however, all he has is Ajani’s Presence and Loxodon Smiter which kills the value on my other Thoughtseize.

His next turn he draws a land finally, and plays it.  He attacks, and I accept the damage. During his main phase 2, he doesn’t play Smiter though. I assume for two reasons:  1. He wants to leave it open for in case he wants to protect Experiment One, not knowing I currently have a Bile Blight in hand making his Ajani’s Presence null and void.  2. He wants to see if I’ll absent-mindedly play Thoughtseize where he can respond with Ajani’s Presence and force me to pick Loxodon Smiter so he can get it for free and force me to lose 2 life. It’s only round 2 so if he’s thinking the latter, I can’t blame him for testing me.

The following turn is pretty much the sad tale of how the rest of the game goes. I miss another land. He draws, plays Smiter. I go ahead and Bile Blight the Experiment Ones. But at this point, I’m dead in the water. For the rest of the game, I never drew a third land to start generating Pack Rats.

Going into Rd. 3, I’m 1-1. I get demolished by Rabble Red. It’s simply too fast for me to keep up with and my opponent finds all the answers he need to keep me off Pack Rat. It’s just a terrible match-up for me.

At this point, I know I’m pretty much dead to Top 8 now. I’m 1-2 going into Rd. 4. Depending on the circumstances, there’s a slight chance that one of the 3-2’s will get in off tie-breakers but very, very slim. I go ahead and play it out because I’ve only been playing seriously again for slightly over a week. I need the practice, and with the season deadline being August 24^th, I still need 97 Planeswalker points to get at least one bye for GP Orlando.

My next match is Mono Blue. This was an interesting version because it runs Steam Vents for Turn & Burn. Normally, the only removal spells are Rapid Hybridization and Cyclonic Rift, so it took me for surprise seeing Turn & Burn. But we got there.

My final match was a Rakdos brew which seemed to revolve on getting Master of Cruelties out and quickly bring me to 1 life. Fortunately for me, with plenty of removal spells in my deck, I think this is just a bad match-up for my opponent and I proceeded to win 2-0.

I ended up in 10^th place.

The list I ran for Friday and Saturday was this:

Other Spells:  (19)

1 Ulcerate

4 Thoughtseize

3 Bile Blight

1 Devour Flesh

1 Ultimate Price

1 Sign in Blood

4 Hero’s Downfall

3 Underworld Connections

1 Whip of Erebos

Creatures: (16)

4 Gray-Merchant of Asphodel

4 Pack Rat

4 Desecration Demon

3 Life Bane Zombie

1 Nightveil Specter

Lands: (25)

4 Mutavault

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

3 Temple of Malady

17 Swamp

Sideboard: (15)

2 Dark Betrayal

2 Nightveil Specter

1 Lifebane Zombie

1 Devour Flesh

3 Brain Maggot

3 Duress

1 Drown in Sorrow

1 Erebos, God of the Dead

1 Doom Blade

So my big changes from the traditional Mono Black were Ulcerate, Temple of Malady, and Brain Maggot. Ulcerate’s presence was hit and miss.  It was strong early game against Mutavault because no one expects it. It was also great against Fleecemane Lion. Late game, Bile Blight is still better. Temple of Malady was a big success. I have seen most Mono Black decks running Deceit, but I picked Malady because of the green meta, so if I happen to hit with Nightveil Specter, I’m likely to get a little more value. Brain Maggot was my MVP in several matches, specifically against Mono Blue, G/W, and Mono Green. The ability to exile any card from their hand is huge, and the removal those decks have is minimal. Sure, Mono Blue has Rapid Hybridization, and Cyclonic Rift, but that’s fine. If my opponent is at the point where they’re willing to give me a 3/3 for my 1/1,that means I’m in a good spot. If they Rift it back to my hand, it means I get a fresh look at their hand again or I bait out a Dissolve.  The G/W and the Mono Green decks really have no removal for Brain Maggot aside from possibly Polukranos or Banishing Light.

This week, I’ll probably take out Ulcerate for a different removal spell. Everything else will probably stay the same. My weakest match-up is Rabble Red which I have concluded 8 times out of 10, I’m probably going to lose to. I’d rather accept that loss, and focus on the matches I have a better shot at beating. I'm also looking forward to the PTQ hosted by Armada Games in Tampa. Unfortunately, it's Modern which I'm pretty much going into blind. So we'll see how that goes.

After this past weekend’s events, my winnings are up to $67.50 and I am 86 points away from my bye at GP Orlando.